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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Why Your Blog Sucks

There are many reasons this could be true, but the one I want to focus on is this:

Your blog sucks because it offers no real value to your readers.

Here is a test you can take to see if your blog sucks. If you answer yes to any one of these, then you may have figured out the reason why you don't get much traffic.

The majority of your posts are about for-purchase products that you have created. They are basically ads. This is the main one that I see. You are not offering value to anyone. Your blog is a waste of space.

A lot of your posts are focused on gathering more followers. Whether you are bragging about how many you have, noting that you only need a few more to hit a round number (and asking your reader to help you achieve it), running a contest in which people must follow you in order to enter, or advertising someone else's contest, if you do too much you are wasting your readers' time.

You talk about yourself...a lot. Writing about a lesson you did with your students that was really successful (and giving instructions on how to duplicate it) is great. So are pictures of your students doing interesting work or of your cool bulletin board or organizing system. Even the occasional rant can be fine if it is written with an entertaining flair. But just sort of rambling on and on about your day...not so much.

Your blog is difficult to look at. The font is hard to read, the background does not contrast enough with the text. Images are often misaligned, you have taken cute to an such an extreme it is frighening etc.

You may have a blog for many reasons. Possibly, the only reason you started your blog was to help you sell your products. However, that is not a good enough reason for others to read it. You must offer valuable content. Give your readers something they can use, whether it is an informative article, a list of ideas they can use with their students, a freebie, an interesting video, etc.

Before you post ask yourself:

"Would I want to read this post if I weren't me?" If the answer is "no," don't post it.